England thumped Proteas in the tournament opener by 104 runs
 |
England vs South Africa, Kennington Oval, London.
|
England recorded a resounding victory [104 runs]
against South Africa in the opening clash of the ICC Cricket World
Cup 2019. This is the second instance where South Africa had lost their opening match in a 50 over
World cup, first such occurrence was against the West Indies when they lost by a close margin of three runs way back in 2003 World Cup.
Back then, it was the brilliance of Brian Lara, this time it was New Zealand born English International All rounder, Ben
Stokes, who sealed the deal for England.
Match Preview
 |
Imran Tahir jolted the host with a wicket in the
very first over.
|
Faf Du Plessis after winning the toss invited the
host to occupy the crease and for his bowlers to make use of the damp wicket
early in the innings. Imran Tahir proved his skipper decision to bowl first veracious by
scalping the in-form Jonny Bairstow of the very second ball of first over. With this, Tahir
also becomes the first ever spinner to bowl the first over of a world cup. Martin
Crowe pulled that trick way back in 1992 when the offie Dipak Patel opened the
bowling for New Zealand, but that was in the second innings.
 |
| Jason Roy and Joe Root stitched a century partnership. |
 |
Ben Stokes was brilliant with the bat scoring 89
(79).
|
After that, Jason Roy and Joe Root joined hands
and stitched a 106 run partnership before both were dismissed in a span of 4
balls. South Africa strived to make full use of this mini collapse but skipper Morgan and
Stokes came up with different plans. They were circumspect when Rabada and
Ngidi were charging in together.
Once they both got their eyes in and stitched
another century partnership. After the departure of Morgan, it was left to
Stokes and the lower middle order to finish things off. But Stokes did not get enough support from the other end as
wickets kept tumbling and in the thirst of scoring quick
runs towards the end, misses his century by just 11 runs.
Even though the wickets kept on falling but 300
was always on the cards for the host with flat and batting friendly wickets, and eventually ended up with 311/8.
South Africa too started cautiously before Amla
got a blow on his helmet from Jofra Archer which forced him to retire.
After which, Du Plessis and Markram were soon sent back to the hut by Archer.
 |
Amla took a blow on his helmet and was retired hurt.
|
Archer has just played one and half ODI (one washed out
because of rain) when England's management believed that he is good enough to be the part of World Cup and asserted, they have seen enough of him over the years
playing T20s all across the globe.
 |
Jofra Archer dented the top order of South Africa
batting line up.
|
Except De Kock and Rassie van der Dussen nobody
showed the intent to stay on the wicket and were rather reckless in their shot selection.
The pace troika of Jofra Archer, Liam Plunkett
and Ben Stokes shared 7 wickets with Archer accounting for
three.
 |
| England thrashed South Africa by 104 runs. |
The Superman Stokes
Ben Stokes took a blinder of a catch at deep mid
wicket.
Bring out the hyperbole, unfurl the 'best catch
ever' whoop, talk about the knighthood already. Ben Stokes deserves all the glory
for that one handed mid air heist. Words will fail to convey what he pulled off
in the World cup opener. Harsha Bhogle speculated that we might have witnessed the
catch of the tournament.
 |
Stokes after taking the catch.
|
Meanwhile, spare a thought on Andile Phehlukwayo,
who was left in disbelief. For a split second he might have thought the ball to sail
over the stands but only for the heroics of Stokes to pull out the
stunner.
 |
Stokes getting applause from his teammates.
|
What they said ?
Eoin Morgan (England):
 |
Eoin Morgan during a post match press conference.
|
"Delighted to be off and running
in this tournament. It’s more satisfying than normal. We were very good today,
the wicket didn’t allow us to execute our plan which is to try and score quite a
considerable total, but I thought the maturity and smart cricket we played
shows the effort we put in the last two years and the experience as well. Extremely impressed.
He (Stokes) had a field day and especially that catch he took was absolutely
outstanding. To have a match-winner like that in the side, he is someone who lifts
absolutely everybody and I thought the bowling unit really did get off to a
great start and continued to learn from the first innings and then put into place in
second innings. He (Archer) bowled fast and accurate and it’s
outstanding. He is taking everything in his stride at the moment and he is improving
everyday and that’s very exciting. Huge amount of pleasure. It’s an area we
were always trying to improve on and certainly we are looking for match winning contributions
in the field".
Faf du Plessis (South Africa):
 |
Faf du Plessis during press conference.
|
"I think we have been outplayed in all three departments. Basically we were 3 down in 12 overs and I think we were looking for 330-340 but when we took the pace off we thought 300 was par. It was a plan (to start with Tahir). We wanted to target those two openers with leg spin, especially Roy. It worked today. Their batting was really good. They are a top-quality team and they showed that with the bat today. You need a bit of momentum in the first two games. He (Amla) is okay now and when he came back to the dressing room, he looked fine and hopefully that’s a good sign for the next game. When we have Dale and all our resources, we back our bowling to restrict teams under 300".
Ben Stokes, Man of the Match (England):
 |
Ben Stokes when asked about the stunning catch.
|
(On the catch) "I was a little further in than I should have been. I panicked a bit I guess but it stuck. I shouldn’t have been there (initially) and it was probably a regulation catch but I was in the wrong position. (On the pitch) The message from the batsmen in the middle was that it was a tricky pitch to bat on, so the aim was to get to 300-310. Maybe 330. I was looking to just pace it. The hard length was difficult and obviously, the slower balls and all. Towards the end, they (SA bowlers) were really hard to get away. I guess psychologically getting over the 300-run mark really helped. And then, our bowlers knew what to do and they executed well. (On the crowd support) It was unbelievable, excellent turnaround for the first World Cup and hope it continues".
Comments
Post a Comment